¹Three days after Festus took over his duties in the province of Judea, he went from the city of Caesarea to Jerusalem. ²The chief priests and the other important Jewish leaders informed Festus about their charges against Paul. They were urging ³Festus to do them the favor of having Paul brought to Jerusalem. The Jews had a plan to ambush and kill Paul as he traveled to Jerusalem.

⁴Festus replied that he would be returning to Caesarea soon and would keep Paul there. ⁵He told them, “Have your authorities come to Caesarea with me and accuse him there if the man has done something wrong.”

⁶Festus stayed in Jerusalem for eight or ten days at the most and then returned to Caesarea. The next day Festus took his place in court and summoned Paul.

⁷When Paul entered the room, the Jews who had come from Jerusalem surrounded him. They made a lot of serious accusations that they couldn’t prove. ⁸Paul defended himself by saying, “I haven’t broken any Jewish law or done anything against the temple or the emperor.”

⁹But Festus wanted to do the Jews a favor. So he asked Paul, “Are you willing to go to Jerusalem to be tried there on these charges with me as your judge?”

¹⁰Paul said, “I am standing in the emperor’s court where I must be tried. I haven’t done anything wrong to the Jews, as you know very well. ¹¹If I am guilty and have done something wrong for which I deserve the death penalty, I don’t reject the idea of dying. But if their accusations are untrue, no one can hand me over to them as a favor. I appeal my case to the emperor!”

¹²Festus discussed the appeal with his advisers and then replied to Paul, “You have appealed your case to the emperor, so you’ll go to the emperor!”

King Agrippa Meets Paul

¹³Later King Agrippa and Bernice came to the city of Caesarea to welcome Festus. ¹⁴Since they were staying there for a number of days, Festus told the king about Paul’s case.

Festus said, “Felix left a man here in prison. ¹⁵When I went to Jerusalem, the chief priests and the Jewish leaders brought me some information about him and asked me to condemn him.

¹⁶“I replied to them, ‘That’s not the Roman way of doing things. A person can’t be sentenced as a favor. Before he is sentenced, he must face his accusers and have a chance to defend himself against their accusation.’

¹⁷“So the Jewish leaders came to Caesarea with me. The next day I immediately convened court and summoned the man. ¹⁸When his accusers stood up, they didn’t accuse him of the crimes I was expecting. ¹⁹They were disputing with him about their own religion and about some man named Jesus who had died. But Paul claimed that Jesus is alive. ²⁰Their debate about these things left me puzzled. So I asked Paul if he would like to go to Jerusalem to have his case heard there. ²¹But Paul appealed his case. He asked to be held in prison and to have His Majesty the Emperor decide his case. So I ordered him to be held in prison until I could send him to the emperor.”

²²Agrippa told Festus, “I would like to hear the man.”

Festus replied, “You’ll hear him tomorrow.”

²³The next day Agrippa and Bernice entered the auditorium with a lot of fanfare. Roman army officers and the most important men of the city entered the auditorium with them. Festus gave the order, and Paul was brought into the auditorium.

²⁴Then Festus said, “King Agrippa and everyone who is present with us! All the Jews in Jerusalem and Caesarea have talked to me about this man you see in front of you. They shout that he must not be allowed to live any longer. ²⁵However, I don’t think that he has done anything to deserve the death penalty. But since he made an appeal to His Majesty the Emperor, I have decided to send him to Rome. ²⁶But I don’t have anything reliable to write our emperor about him. So I have brought him to all of you, and especially to you, King Agrippa. Then I’ll have something to write after he is cross-examined. ²⁷I find it ridiculous to send a prisoner to Rome when I can’t specify any charges against him.”

26TH CHAPTER

¹Agrippa said to Paul, “You’re free to speak for yourself.”

Paul acknowledged King Agrippa and then began his defense. ²“King Agrippa, I think I’m fortunate today to stand in front of you and defend myself against every charge that the Jews brought against me. ³I say this since you are especially familiar with every custom and controversy in Judaism. So I ask you to listen patiently to me.

⁴“All the Jews know how I lived the earliest days of my youth with my own people and in Jerusalem. ⁵They’ve known me for a long time and can testify, if they’re willing, that I followed the strictest party of our religion. They know that I lived my life as a Pharisee.

⁶“I’m on trial now because I expect God to keep the promise that he made to our ancestors. ⁷Our twelve tribes expect this promise to be kept as they worship with intense devotion day and night. Your Majesty, the Jews are making accusations against me because I expect God to keep his promise. ⁸Why do all of you refuse to believe that God can bring dead people back to life?

⁹“I used to think that I had to do a lot of things to oppose the one named Jesus of Nazareth. ¹⁰That is what I did in Jerusalem. By the authority I received from the chief priests, I locked many Christians in prison. I voted to have them killed every time a vote was taken. ¹¹I even went to each synagogue, punished believers, and forced them to curse ⸤the name of Jesus⸥. In my furious rage against them, I hunted them down in cities outside ⸤Jerusalem⸥.

¹²“I was carrying out these activities when I went to the city of Damascus. I had the power and authority of the chief priests. ¹³Your Majesty, at noon, while I was traveling, I saw a light that was brighter than the sun. The light came from the sky and shined around me and those who were with me. ¹⁴All of us fell to the ground, and I heard a voice asking me in Hebrew, ‘Saul, Saul! Why are you persecuting me? It’s hard for ⸤a mortal like⸥ you to resist God.’

¹⁵“I asked, ‘Who are you, sir?’

“The Lord answered, ‘I am Jesus, the one you’re persecuting. ¹⁶Stand up! I have appeared to you for a reason. I’m appointing you to be a servant and witness of what you have seen and of what I will show you. ¹⁷I will rescue you from the Jewish people and from the non-Jewish people to whom I am sending you. ¹⁸You will open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from Satan’s control to God’s. Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and a share among God’s people who are made holy by believing in me.’

¹⁹“At that point I did not disobey the vision I saw from heaven, King Agrippa. ²⁰Instead, I spread the message that I first told to the ⸤Jewish⸥ people in Damascus and Jerusalem and throughout the whole country of Judea. I spread the same message to non-Jewish people. Both groups were expected to change the way they thought and acted and to turn to God. I told them to do things that prove they had changed their lives. ²¹For this reason the Jews took me prisoner in the temple courtyard and tried to murder me.

²²“God has been helping me to this day so that I can stand and testify to important and unimportant people. I tell them only what the prophets and Moses said would happen. ²³They said that the Messiah would suffer and be the first to come back to life and would spread light to Jewish and non-Jewish people.”

²⁴As Paul was defending himself in this way, Festus shouted, “Paul, you’re crazy! Too much education is driving you crazy!”

²⁵Paul replied, “I’m not crazy, Your Excellency Festus. What I’m saying is true and sane. ²⁶I can easily speak to a king who knows about these things. I’m sure that none of these things has escaped his attention. None of this was done secretly. ²⁷King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you believe them!”

²⁸Agrippa said to Paul, “Do you think you can quickly persuade me to become a Christian?”

²⁹Paul replied, “I wish to God that you and everyone listening to me today would quickly and completely become as I am (except for being a prisoner).”

³⁰The king, the governor, Bernice, and the people who were sitting with them got up. ³¹As they were leaving, they said to each other, “This man isn’t doing anything for which he deserves to die or be put in prison.”

³²Agrippa told Festus, “This man could have been set free if he hadn’t appealed his case to the emperor.”

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